Posted tagged ‘Belgium’

51 Nonprofits in Brussels Migrant District Suspected of Having Terror Links

March 21, 2017

Police have uncovered 51 groups with suspected terrorist ties in migrant-dominated Molenbeek, Brussels, a new report has disclosed.

by Virginia Hale

20 Mar 2017

Source: 51 Nonprofits in Brussels Migrant District Suspected of Having Terror Links – Breitbart

 

Police have uncovered 51 organisations with suspected terrorist ties in the migrant-dominated Molenbeek district of Brussels, according to a new report into anti-terror measures.

Belgium’s Interior Minister Jan Jambon promised to “clean up” the now-notorious municipality, which has a reputation for being a jihadi safe-haven, after authorities discovered the Brussels commune acted as a hub for many of the suspects involved in the Paris and Brussels terror attacks.

The confidential report revealed that under the Channel Plan, police have carried out door-to-door checks on more than 8,600 houses and 22,668 inhabitants — a quarter of all Molenbeek residents — in the last year, in a bid to tighten security.

Under the Channel Plan, which began a year ago and added 300 officers and €39 million to the force, police have produced a list of 72 terror suspects — 26 of whom live in Syria or Iraq and 46 who live in Belgium.

Of Belgium-based jihadists identified, 20 are incarcerated while the other 26 are “closely monitored” by authorities. However, the report revealed that only five of the terror suspects listed are being accompanied by deradicalisation staff.

In total, 6,168 people in Molenbeek are being monitored.

The Channel Plan also had police review the 1,617 NGOs and nonprofit groups situated in the district, with the report revealing police found at least 51 of these had links to terrorism and radical Islam and uncovered a further 102 which were associated with crime.

But deputy mayor of Molenbeek, Ahmed El Khannouss, is among voices who have condemned the “clean up” of the district, branding the Channel Plan “wicked and unjustified”.

“We thought we had overcome such practices [as inspecting mosques] since the Second World War when people were singled out for their religion — a thing which led to one of the worst ignominies of history,” he wrote in an open letter to Mr. Jambon.

The Union of Mosques of the Brussels Region (UMRB) and the Platform of Muslims of Belgium (PMB), too, attacked the programme, writing: “[Police] checks have been carried out with unjustifiable brutality. The prejudices and generalisations we see are not only harmful to our community but society as a whole.”

The groups argued that mosque inspections result in Muslim groups in Belgium feeling “stigmatised” and like they are the victim of “hatred and rejection” from non-Muslims in Belgium.

However, in February, a report by Belgium’s Coordination Unit for Threat Analysis (OCAD) warned radical Islam is spreading in the nation to the detriment of moderate Islam, and empowering extremist and jihadist groups.

UK woman opened home to Muslim “12-year-old refugee,” he was really adult jihadi, said “I’ll kill you all”

March 2, 2017

UK woman opened home to Muslim “12-year-old refugee,” he was really adult jihadi, said “I’ll kill you all”, Jihad Watch

“Julie said she later found that Abdul had been visiting extremist websites on his mobile phone and an interpreter relayed messages, sent to family and friends, where he had been joking about tricking the British government into thinking he was a child.”

The British government was doubtless too busy hounding foes of jihad terror and banning foreign ones from entering the country to pay much attention to a trivial matter such as trying to prevent Islamic jihadi “refugee children” from terrorizing Britons.

“She later found out he was not the person he said he was and had been arrested while posing as a child refugee in Belgium.”

But he still got into Britain by posing as a child again. It would have been “Islamophobic” to keep him out, right? In the same vein, Britain has a steadily lengthening record of admitting jihad preachers without a moment of hesitation. Syed Muzaffar Shah Qadri’s preaching of hatred and jihad violence was so hardline that he was banned from preaching in Pakistan, but the UK Home Office welcomed him into Britain.

The UK Home Office recently admitted Shaykh Hamza Sodagar into the country, despite the fact that he has said: “If there’s homosexual men, the punishment is one of five things. One – the easiest one maybe – chop their head off, that’s the easiest. Second – burn them to death. Third – throw ’em off a cliff. Fourth – tear down a wall on them so they die under that. Fifth – a combination of the above.”

May’s government also recently admitted two jihad preachers who had praised the murderer of a foe of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. One of them was welcomed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Meanwhile, the UK banned three bishops from areas of Iraq and Syria where Christians are persecuted from entering the country. And of course, May banned me from entering the country for saying: “[Islam] is a religion and is a belief system that mandates warfare against unbelievers,” which is like banning me for saying humans need oxygen to breathe.

child-refugee-julie-loose-women-uk

“Mother-of-two reveals she opened her home to Afghan ’12-year-old refugee’ but was shocked when he turned out to be a grown man who threatened to KILL her family,” by Alex Matthews, Mailonline, March 1, 2017:

A mother-of-two opened up her home to a grown man posing as an Afghan ’12-year-old refugee’ who later attacked her family.

The woman said she lives in fear after the man, who said his name was Abdul, threatened to kill her family after he was arrested for assaulting her relatives.

During an emotional interview on ITV’s Loose Women, the mother, who was renamed Julie for anonymity reasons, has now called on the Government to carry out proper age checks on refugees coming to the UK.

She told presenters Ruth Langsford and Saira Khan that she had taken in the asylum seeker after being asked to look after him for a ‘few nights’ by social services.

Julie recalled: ‘When I walked into the room, I didn’t think he was the person they were referring to. He looked about 19. He was very quiet and very timid.

‘I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I don’t usually take teenagers. I take younger children. But I just thought he needed a home and didn’t think anymore of it.’

Despite her initial misgivings regarding the boy’s age, Julie generously opened up her home up to the youngster.

However, she became suspicious of his true identity after a dental examination.

She said: ‘We went to a dental appointment and the dentist age-assessed him between 18 and 21.

‘They had to give him the benefit of the doubt and because he claimed he was 12 and the dentist aged him as 21, they placed him at 16. They averaged him.’

Julie said that at first her new arrival was pleasant and well behaved, but soon he turned nasty.

She later found out he was not the person he said he was and had been arrested while posing as a child refugee in Belgium.

She said: ‘He was lovely in the beginning. Very humble, very polite, very thoughtful. But as the weeks went by I started to notice a change in him. I was comparing him to my boy and he was more mature than my boy was.

‘He had been arrested in Belgium. He had a bone density x-ray there and they said ‘‘you aren’t 12’’ and sent him on his way.

‘I found out that he claimed asylum there as 17-year-old. I couldn’t understand why that information wasn’t passed on to me.’

‘I became very frightened, he became quite menacing after I set up a Facebook account for him.

‘I was hoping to help him find his family and then shortly after he was receiving these phone calls where his manner would change dramatically and he became intimidating and quite threatening.

Julie said she felt scared to be alone with Abdul in her own home but didn’t want another family placed with such a temperamental and possibly dangerous man.

She said: ‘I was concerned because if they asked to re-home him, I didn’t want him to go to another family because he wasn’t who he claimed to be.

‘I can remember one day he went up to the fridge and he was looking at a photo of me and my daughter, as if he was trying to intimidate me through my daughter.

‘My daughter was stood there and I can remember thinking, ‘‘don’t turn around’’. I knew and I could see what he was doing in the corner of my eye, but I kept on wiping up.

‘He walked right up behind me and I can still feel his breath on the back of my neck and I can remember feeling petrified.’

Julie said she later found that Abdul had been visiting extremist websites on his mobile phone and an interpreter relayed messages, sent to family and friends, where he had been joking about tricking the British government into thinking he was a child.

She said: ‘I was so shocked. I can remember thinking, ”Oh my god! Who is this person?’’

A permanent home was found for Abdul and it was then that he started to lash out at Julie and her family.

She said: ‘There were other homes that had been offered to him and it wasn’t where he wanted to go.

‘When another home came up he became very aggressive about it.

‘He started [attacking] verbally and then a member of my family got in between us, in fear of me getting hurt, and then he pushed them back and started punching.

‘I ran to get the police and I was just pleading with him to calm down and just said ”why are you doing this?”.

Abdul was arrested for the assault but now Julie lives in fear of him coming back and attacking her family

She said: ‘He did make threats to us before the police took him, to me and the children. He did say when he was removed: ‘I’ll kill you all. I know where you live’

‘I’m very frightened since he was removed. I know that he’s not being properly watched and he could at any time, turn up at my house. I panic if I’m not at school on time.

‘He knows the school runs, he’s knows everything. We changed the locks at the house and I’m constantly vigilant of everything.’…

Moscow summons Belgian ambassador, presents data on F-16s bombing of Syrian civilians

October 21, 2016

Moscow summons Belgian ambassador, presents data on F-16s bombing of Syrian civilians

Published time: 21 Oct, 2016 12:34 Edited time: 21 Oct, 2016 13:29

Source: Moscow summons Belgian ambassador, presents data on F-16s bombing of Syrian civilians — RT News

A Belgian F-16 fighter jet © Eric Vidal / Reuters

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it has presented Alex Van Meeuwen, Belgium’s ambassador in Moscow, with evidence proving the involvement of Belgian Air Force jets in a recent airstrike on a Syrian village that killed four civilians.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Van Meeuwen on Friday.

“During the conversation with Van Meeuwen, First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov said that Moscow was puzzled by Belgium’s ongoing denial of the fact that the Belgian Air Force carried out an airstrike that killed civilians on the outskirts of Aleppo on October 18 of this year,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Belgian diplomat [Van Meeuwen] was presented with evidence showing involvement of the Belgian Air Force in the airstrike on the village of Hassadjek. It was also mentioned that detailed info on the technical aspects of the flight of the two F-16 jets had been given to Belgium’s military attaché in Moscow by the Russian Ministry of Defense.”

Read more

An F-16 fighter jet from the Belgian Air Force  © Jon Nazca

Brussels is using “worthless excuses” in an attempt to divert public attention from the airstrike on the Syrian village, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Friday.

“Attempts by the Belgian Defense Minister [Steven Vandeput] to divert public attention from the tragedy, using obviously worthless excuses, causes profound confusion. It speaks of either Mr Vandeput’s misunderstanding of the document provided by Russia, or the desire of the US Armed Forces Central Command, responsible for providing targeting data to aircraft of the international coalition in Syria, to evade responsibility for the death of six Syrian civilians, killed in the airstrike,” Konashenkov told journalists.

Belgian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Didier Vanderhasselt told Interfax on Friday the ministry is not yet aware of the content of its ambassador’s conversation with Russia’s deputy foreign minister, and is waiting for the results of the meeting. “We maintain dialogue with the Russian side, we need to know exactly what was said at this meeting,” he added.

“We are also surprised by the fact that we have not been provided with the data before,” Vanderhasselt is cited as saying by Interfax. “Our military gave all the explanations to the military attaché of the Russian Embassy in Belgium yesterday [Thursday] morning,” he added.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov said on Thursday that Brussels’ obstinate denial of involvement shows that Belgian Defense Minister Steven Vandeput is either “deliberately deceiving people in Belgium and around the world, or his subordinates and the Americans are lying to the leadership of Belgium.”

The airstrike on the village of Hassadjek in Syria’s Aleppo province reportedly killed six civilians on Tuesday.

According to Konashenkov, the two Belgian F-16s were immediately identified by Russian and Syrian air defense radar and all of their movements were tracked.

“Every aircraft type has a unique identifiable signature,” he noted.

The warplanes, which had flown in from the Muwaffaq Salti Airbase in Jordan, delivered their night strike on the village at 00:35 GMT, about two hours after takeoff, leaving six civilians dead and four injured, the general said. Russia tracked the flight of the two planes from Jordan to Iraq and Syria, as well as their meeting with a US KC-135 tanker, which refueled them over the Deir ez-Zor area, Konashenkov said, adding that the US-led coalition hadn’t informed Russia about the Belgian flights.

WATCH MORE:

Belgium: Police hunt for imam’s son who walked down street loudly praying to Allah for “annihilation of all Christians”

August 10, 2016

Belgium: Police hunt for imam’s son who walked down street loudly praying to Allah for “annihilation of all Christians” Jihad Watch

Belgian authorities are trying to deport his father to…the Netherlands. That is insane enough in the first place, and they can’t even manage that. Authorities in both countries could at least move to ensure that El Alami Amaouch is no longer teaching or preaching at any mosque. But it is doubtful that they are doing that, either. The impotence of Western authorities is the chief enabler of the jihad against the West today.

“Belgian police hunt 15-year-old son of radical imam and declare him a ‘serious threat’ after the boy posts a video calling for the murder of all ‘Christians,’” by Abe Hawken, Mailonline, August 9, 2016:

Belgian police are desperately hunting a radicalised 15-year-old son of an imam who appeared in a video pleading for the ‘annihilation of all Christians’.

The chilling video shows the teenager, who has not been named, calling for Allah to ‘destroy’ Christians and ‘kill them all’.

He sang the alarming outburst which was filmed in Verviers, east Belgium, and police added that the boy has been recognised and is on a list on radicalised people.

A source told the Daily Telegraph that the youngster is the son of a local radical imam – a leader of a mosque.

The source added that the teenager posed a potentially ‘serious threat’ to the public and officers wanted to trace him ‘as soon as possible’.

Muriel Targnion, Mayor of Verviers, said that the recorded clip is being taken seriously and requested that officers find him as ‘a matter of urgency’.

In the video – posted on Memri TV – he said: ‘Oh Allah, annihilate the hateful Christians. Oh Allah, kill them all. Do not leave a single one of them.’

The film was shot in Verviers, the scene of a successful anti-terrorism operation last year.

Belgian newspaper La Meuse reported that the boy is the son of imam El Alami Amaouch, who currently faces deportation to the Netherlands.

His father has duel Dutch-Moroccan nationality and is a leader at a mosque in the village of Dison, near Verviers.

Theo Francken, Belgium’s Minister for Asylum and Migration, said the authorities tried to extradite Amaouch to the Netherlands but his appeal delayed proceedings….

Antwerp Terror Arrests Underscore Growing Threat to Europe and America

June 1, 2016

Antwerp Terror Arrests Underscore Growing Threat to Europe and America, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Abigail R. Esman, June 1, 2016

768

Last Wednesday, just two years and a day after the deadly terrorist attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, and barely more than two months after the twin attacks on the Brussels airport and metro, Belgian police arrested a group of Muslim youth planning yet another attack, this time in Antwerp. Aiming “to kill as many kufar,” or non-Muslims, as possible, the group is believed to have been planning to bomb Antwerp’s Central Station. The group also is believed to have made previous plans to assassinate right-wing politician Filip Dewinter, the leader of the Vlaams Belang party. Those plans were put on hold, however, in favor of a larger-scale attack.

The suspects were members of a group of radicalized Muslim teens believed to have kept contact with Antwerp native Hicham Chaib, who is now a high-ranking leader of the Islamic State. It was Chaib who informed the public that the March 22 attacks on Belgium’s Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro station “were just a taste of what’s to come.” And it is Chaib, the former second-in-command of Shariah4Belgium who left Antwerp for Syria in 2012, who now actively recruits other Antwerp-based youth to join ISIS or to execute terrorist attacks in their homeland.

The four arrests followed a series of raids by Antwerp police into the homes of several suspects in the Borgerhout district. Two suspects have been released, but other members of the group, some arrested previously, remain in custody. All suspects are said to be between the ages of 16 and 19, confirming earlier Dutch reports that European Muslims under the age of 20 are increasingly becoming involved in Islamic State activities and jihadist plots.

According to some accounts, the Antwerp group is comprised of nine youths, at least five of whom are minors. At least two members tried to join the Islamic State in Raqqa in March, but were stopped by officials en route and sent back to Belgium.

With security and counter-terror investigations heightened in Brussels after the March 22 attacks there, it is unsurprising that jihadists might be moving their activities and focus to nearby Antwerp. The city has a long history of Muslim unrest, with riots as early as 2002 and the founding, by Hizballah-linked Lebanese immigrant Dyab Abou Jahjah, of the Arab European League (AEL) in 2000. An organization with pan-Arab aspirations, the AEL aimed to create what Jahjah called a “sharocracy” – a kind of combination of democracy and sharia – that would eventually become European law.

More recently, Antwerp native Fouad Belkacem founded the notorious Sharia4Belgium, alleged to have organized most of the recruiting for ISIS in Belgium, with some outreach to neighboring countries such as France and The Netherlands. And, of the estimated 500 Belgian Muslims who have joined terrorist groups in Syria, more than 100 come from Antwerp.

But the indication of heightened new activity in Antwerp also suggests possible changes in strategy for Europe-based jihadists and recruiters. While French-speaking Brussels maintains close ties to France (several of the terrorists involved in the two attacks in Paris last year were based or were born in Brussels), Flemish-speaking Antwerp holds a stronger relationship to The Netherlands. Antwerp is also a mere 30 minutes from Rotterdam by high-speed train, offering easy access to Europe’s largest and busiest port. The Rotterdam Port is also the launching point for the vast majority of European exports to America, Europe’s largest external trading partner.

This matters. According to the National Institute of Justice, “Few would dispute that, if terrorists used a cargo container to conceal a weapon of mass destruction and detonated it on arrival at a U.S. port, the impact on global trade and the world economy could be immediate and devastating.” And the New York Times further observed, “The cargo containers arriving on ships from foreign ports offer terrorists a Trojan horse for a devastating attack on the United States. As the Harvard political scientist Graham T. Allison has put it, a nuclear attack is ‘far more likely to arrive in a cargo container than on the tip of a missile.'”

The good news, however, is that The Netherlands’ intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies are well-recognized for their research, acuity, and effectiveness. And Rotterdam takes an especially hard line on Islamic extremism: its Essalam Mosque, Holland’s largest, served as the site for anti-extremist protests. Last year, the mosque dismissed all foreign Arabs from its board of directors. And following the January 2015 attacks in Paris, Ahmed Aboutaleb, Rotterdam’s Muslim mayor, famously invited any Dutch Muslim wishing to join the jihad in Syria to make the trip and never try to return. More, his fierce response to youth who dislike Dutch values was even more direct: he told them to “f*** off.”

Perhaps, then, even as these latest arrests demonstrate just how much Europe’s radical Muslim problem threatens to become America’s radical Muslim problem, we should consider making some of Europe’s more radical solutions America’s solutions, too.

Belgium will extend the Distribution of Iodine Pills

May 2, 2016

Belgium will extend the Distribution of Iodine Pills, Israel Defense, Ami Rojkes Dombe, May 1, 2016

iodinehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzWdvBqITEU

Following the terrorist attacks in Belgium and the growing fear of an attack on a nuclear power station or nuclear terrorism, the smh.com.au website reported that the government decided to issue anti-radiation tablets to Belgian citizens.

Iodine pills, which help reduce radiation build-up in the thyroid gland, had previously only been issued to people living within 20km (14 miles) of the Tihange and Doel nuclear plants.

Maggie De Block, the Belgian health minister, said that would be extended to 100km, covering the whole country of 11 million people, following advice from an expert council.

Last week Germany asked that the 40-year-old Tihange 2 and Doel 3 reactors be turned off “until the resolution of outstanding security issues. Belgium’s official nuclear safety agency (AFCN) rejected the German request, saying the two plants “respond to the strictest possible safety requirements”.

Belgian Interior Minister: ‘Significant’ part of Muslim community ‘danced’ in wake of attacks

April 17, 2016

Belgian Interior Minister: ‘Significant’ part of Muslim community ‘danced’ in wake of attacks, American ThinkerThomas Lifson, April 17, 2016

In an interview yesterday, Belgium’s Interior Minister Jam Jambon charged that a large part of the country’s Muslim population celebrated terrors attacks:

AFP reports:

“A significant section of the Muslim community danced when attacks took place,” Jambon said in an interview with the Flemish-language De Standaard newspaper.

The Belgian minister also accused Muslim residents of Brussels’ largely immigrant Molenbeek neighbourhood of attacking police during an operation last month to arrest a suspect in connection with the deadly attacks in Paris last November.

“They threw stones and bottles at police and press during the arrest of Salah Abdeslam. This is the real problem. Terrorists we can pick up, remove from society. But they are just a boil. Underneath is a cancer that is much more difficult to treat. We can do it, but it won’t be overnight,” he said. (snip)

In Saturday’s interview he said that the danger linked to the radicalisation of youth from third and fourth generation families is “too deeply rooted” in some areas because Belgium “have for many years ignored the warning signs”.

Shades of Donald Trump charging that Muslims in the US celebrated after 9/11, a charge that has lacked a lot of corroborating evidence. Jambon’s portfolio presumably includes police and security forces, so perhaps he has access to more information than Trump.

Hat tip: Jim Netolick

Brussels Muslim had rotting animal testicles and feces in backpack, suggesting Islamic State biological attack plot

April 12, 2016

Brussels Muslim had rotting animal testicles and feces in backpack, suggesting Islamic State biological attack plot, Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer, April 11, 2016

Brussels-backpack-jihadi

 “[T]he Brussels prosecutor issued a statement saying: ‘The rucksack contents … could at no time have been used to make a biological weapon. This has been verified by various tests in laboratories.’” Oh, well, in that case, maybe he was just packing a lunch.

“Brussels terror suspect who was shot by police at tram stop had rucksack containing animal testicles and faeces, prompting fears ISIS is planning crude biological attack on food supplies,” by Peter Allen, MailOnline, April 8, 2016:

Fears that ISIS is planning a primitive biological attack has intensified after rotting animal testicles were found in a terror suspects backpack.

Abderamane Ameroud, 38, was shot in the leg by police and then arrested as he lay beside a tramline in Brussels on March 25.

The dramatic incident took place in the district of Schaerbeek, where last month’s suicide bombings in the Belgian capital were prepared.

A bomb disposal robot was used to check Ameroud’s backpack, which was thought to contain explosives.

But federal prosecutors today confirmed that it contained a plastic bag full of vile material including the testicles and faeces.

Such material can be used to poison food supplies, or to create a deadly concoction aimed at spreading fatal diseases.

The Brussels prosecutor issued a statement saying: ‘The rucksack contents … could at no time have been used to make a biological weapon. This has been verified by various tests in laboratories.’

But the dangers of a terrorists creating a primitive biological arsenal have not been ruled out.

In February, 10 terrorist suspects were arrested in Morocco, and jars were seized containing dead rats, vomit, and shredded nails. It was tested on mice and they did not survive.

The known terrorists who struck in Brussels on March 22nd killing a total of 32 people at the city airport and a Metro station came from Belgium-Moroccan backgrounds….

Majority Of Muslim Students Think Brussels Terrorists Are ‘Heroes’ Say Teachers

April 11, 2016

Majority Of Muslim Students Think Brussels Terrorists Are ‘Heroes’ Say Teachers, BreitbartVirginia Hale, April 11, 2016

Breitbart IslamGetty

Teachers working in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek in Brussels have reported that “90 percent of their students, 17, 18 years old” called the Islamist terrorists who attacked Paris and Brussels “heroes”.

The revelation came in an article in the New York Times, wherein Steven Erlanger spoke to a Belgian policymaker who relayed the information from Belgium.

The piece, entitled “Blaming Policy, Not Islam, for Belgium’s Radicalised Youth”, interviewed Yves Goldstein, chief of staff for the minister-president of the Brussels Capital Region and a Schaerbeek councilman. Schaerbeek and Molenbeek are now infamous as the areas in which for months Islamists lived, hid, manufactured weapons and made preparations for the Paris and Belgium attacks.

Reflecting that “our cities are facing a huge problem, maybe the largest since World War II,” Goldstein poses the question, “How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror?”

Dismissing the idea of Islam having played any role in the Paris attack and the bombing of Brussels airport and a subway station claiming that “religion for them is a pretext” and that they “believe in nothing,” the politician the boldly claims that the problem is a lack of exposure to diversity and modern art:

“We have neighborhoods where people only see the same people, go to school with the same people. What connection do they have with the whole society, what connection do they have with real diversity? It’s the establishment of the ghetto,” he says, “and it’s the thing in our urban development that we have to tackle.”

“These young people will never go to museums until 18 or 20 — they never saw Chagall, they never saw Dalí, they never saw Warhol, they don’t know what it is to dream.”

Erlinger reports that “Jews have left Schaerbeek, and the last two synagogues are being sold. Instead, there is a kind of suffocating, insular, ethnic uniformity” and describes Belgium’s system of integration as “somewhere between the French model, which put new immigrants in suburban ghettos, and the British and American one, which created communities like Chinatown or Little Italy.”

The article neglects to ask basic questions like why – if Islamic extremism is the fault of Belgian urban planning – is it happening globally? Why Jewish communities might have left Schaerbeek? Or why Chinese diaspora, living in Chinatown-like communities and taking no interest in modern art, seem to be at no risk of committing terrorist attacks?

Europe Goes Back to Sleep

April 1, 2016

Europe Goes Back to Sleep, Power LineSteven Hayward, April 1, 2016

Back in late February I reported (“Be Like France”) how the French appeared to be taking the problem of Islamic terrorism seriously, as opposed to Obama, who thinks it a risk somewhere not far above infection from hangnails.

You can call it all off. Europe is going back to sleep. From yesterday’s WSJ:

Hollande Retreats from Plan to Change French Constitution

PARIS—French President François Hollande abandoned a plan to strengthen his hand in fighting terrorism by amending France’s constitution, showing how political pressure at home is undermining his law-and-order response to the Nov. 13 attacks.

Mr. Hollande said Wednesday he would no longer seek to pass two constitutional amendments that would have enshrined the government’s power to declare a state of emergency and to strip some convicted terrorists of their French citizenship. . .

The groundswell of public support that buoyed Mr. Hollande in the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks is fading. . .

Meanwhile, Belgium, whose interior minister admitted Wednesday that the government has cut security forces “too much,” is planning to respond to the terrorist threat with a new $448 million effort at . . . outreach:

After the Paris attacks, the Belgian government announced a €400 million ($448 million) investment in counterterrorism measures, which include significantly increasing counterradicalization efforts in Brussels’s most sensitive neighborhoods.

Good luck with that.

Like France, Belgium seems unable to pass its own version of the Patriot Act:

Four months ago, the Belgian government also announced other legal measures to fight terrorism more efficiently, such as creating a better database of foreign terrorist fighters and allowing house searches 24 hours a day, and not just between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. as under current law.

Belgium’s parliament is still in the process of making the necessary legal changes needed to put those measures into effect.

The interior minister also said, “We will not change the rule of law in this country to be able to interrogate terrorists in a different way.”

Paging Donald Trump.